Happy 50th Birthday La Plagne! The world-famous resort celebrates its birthday on 21st December 2011, with a 3yr renovation project in Plagne Centre; a brand new lift in Champagny; a super spa & pool complex in Montchavin; a new sledging track, and fireworks and entertainment on the actual day.
Our La Plagne chalets, Chalet Epicea and Chalet Pisteside, are based in the village of Les Coches, a cute village that makes up one of the 10 separate “stations” of the La Plagne ski resort. Unlike much of La Plagne, which is made of 60s apartment blocks, Les Coches has a much more traditional feel, and being situated amongst the trees of the Vanoise National Park, it really does have that quintessential skiing charm.
As well as being different in feel from much of La Plagne, Les Coches has another great reason for choosing it as your Paradiski base - it is home to the La Plagne end of the Vanoise Express. This is the impressive cable car that links La Plagne to Les Arcs, and as such, Les Coches is perfectly situated to explore the massive ski area of the Paradiski, offering over 425kms of marked pistes.
But it's easy for us to say we're perfectly located. I mean, we would say that, wouldn't we? After all, everyone else does! So why not see for yourself. Click here for a piste map of the Paradiski ski area, and you'll see that Les Coches is as close to being slap bang in the middle as you can be, without actually living on the cable car!
The Village
Les Coches has all the amenities you would expect of a mountain village. Bars, restaurants, a crèche for the kids, plentiful ski shops, local gift shops, two ski schools, as well as an ice rink and a well stocked local supermarket. In addition, our sister village of Montchavin (a short, free shuttle-bus ride, or ski, away), as well as offering extra choice in bars, restaurants and shops, also a cinema, a club and a brand new-for-2011-12 season spa & pool complex, with a jacuzzi, Turkish bath and treatment centre.
Access to skiing from the chalet
Getting to and from the chalets couldn't be easier. Chalet Pisteside, as the name suggests, is right by the piste, so truly is ski-in, ski-out.
And for Chalet Epicea, like our Les Arcs chalets, Chalet Le Passeu and Chalet Algonquin, we promise little/no walking to and from the slopes in your ski gear at all! How? Simple. Whilst the nearest slopes are only 500m away, and it is possible for intermediate and above skiers to ski to our back door, we offer all our guests free, quick and easy pick-ups and drop-offs in our 7 seater 4x4s. So you can literally step out of our front door, and the next step you take is onto the slopes or the lifts. And with the average lift taking less than a minute, we think this is better, easier and faster than all but the most perfect of ski-in, ski-out locations!
And once you’re on the slopes, you’re well placed to head off to either Les Arcs or La Plagne – take the modern Plan Bois 6-man chairlift in Les Coches, and you can then ski straight to the Vanoise Express and into Les Arcs, or choose to hook up with Bijolin chair if you want to head up and explore La Plagne. Simple!
If you want to find out a bit more about the village of Les Coches, you may want to visit the Montchavin-Les Coches website (Montchavin is our sister village) – it’s offered in English as well as the native French, but it takes a pretty quirky approach to English - our favourite example being that for the skiing info section - “ski slithering” anyone?!